The Game Where Brosnan Played 007 One Last Time
[Retro Review] A look back on the deeply flawed 007 Everything Or Nothing.
To put it lightly, Electronic Arts: the dreaded EA, is not a company with a great reputation.
Voted America’s Worst Company in both 2012 and 2013 and infamous for having shut down scores of beloved studios, EA have certainly never stayed out of headlines for long. That being said, I’ll be the first to admit they’ve published more than a few stellar games: the Battlefield series, while past its prime, has provided multiplayer delights like none other; both Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (I haven’t played Survivor yet) and Star Wars Squadrons were solid too, as was EA’s time with the Bond licence.
The holy trinity of 007 Agent Under Fire, Nightfire and Everything Or Nothing were all published under EA’s tenure and that financial might afforded them production values and resources that Rare could never have matched with GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64.
Today, we’ll be looking at the latter: 007 Everything Or Nothing, a game infused with the finest graphics of the era and a star-studded cast.
Licence Revoked
In the United Kingdom, Bond films have a certain reputation: Sunday afternoon films. It’s tradition in the British Isles to have a roast dinner on a Sunday and once you’re all full up, the family waddles to the TV to watch a film and to rest and digest; 9 times out of 10, the film on TV will be a Bond film, even on Christmas Day it’s the same. Increasingly, the Broccoli Family, who exercised creative control over the Bond films from the 1960’s all the way until 2025, weren’t happy with this reputation and after the release of The Bourne Identity in 2002, they felt that Bond was beginning to look silly and antiquated in a post-9/11 world. So, like football and theatre before it, Bond was stolen from the British working class and repackaged as a product for international audiences and snooty critic types.
But why the preamble? Well, despite the incredibly strong financial performance of Die Another Day, confirming his upcoming 5th appearance as Bond and loving playing the part, Pierce Brosnan was unceremoniously fired from playing 007 over the phone. This makes Everything Or Nothing Brosnan’s final Bond adventure.
Everything Or Nothing was developed by EA Redwood Shores, a studio you might know better as Visceral Games: the people who went on to make the Dead Space games and like Dead Space, but unlike the majority of Bond games that came before it, Everything Or Nothing is played from a third-person perspective; this was the first (and last) time EA had permission to use not only Pierce Brosnan’s likeness but his voice too, so it was felt that the opportunity would be wasted if the game was entirely in first-person like Nightfire and Agent Under Fire before it.
Unlike 007 Nightfire, the choice of best version for 007 Everything or Nothing is a bit of a surprise.
As was typical of the era, the PlayStation 2, being the weaker of the big 3 consoles (despite selling enough units to dwarf the combined total sales of both the GameCube and the Xbox) meant its version of Everything Or Nothing, while not insufferable, doesn’t quite stack up to the opposition; it’s on the Xbox where Everything Or Nothing supposedly plays best.
I played on the GameCube which meant higher quality visuals and framerate than the PS2 but that tiny little disc Nintendo used gives a lot of GameCube games, EoN included, a bit of a compressed sound. There were dips here and there down from 30FPS to around 25 but generally things ran smoothly… but I must say, the unusual GameCube triggers can feel a bit odd for shooters, at least to me.
On the other hand, according to the web, the Xbox version runs more smoothly, I have to imagine that big HDD on-board likely gives it faster loading times, the lighting is improved and anyone who has used an original Xbox controller, either the Duke or the S knows how wonderful it feels to pull those triggers and unload a torrent of gunfire in Halo 2 or Star Wars Republic Commando, it could only be equally as good as Bond himself.
Ever the home of impressive action game ports, the GameBoy Advance received its own version of EoN with an isometric perspective reminiscent of the console’s version of Max Payne. Unlike the GBA version of Nightfire (which I’ve heard high praise for) I can’t seem to find much online regarding people’s opinions on this version so I will neither endorse nor steer you away from it; I need to grab a copy for myself.
In The Wrong Hands
007 Everything Or Nothing takes a leaf out of Tomorrow Never Dies’ book and opens with Bond causing absolute mayhem at a terrorist arms deal in Tajikistan involving a stolen nuclear device.
I don’t find this mission to be as engaging as Nightfire’s opening, however, it is a better primer for the rest of the game’s mechanics and it serves to introduce not only the authentic Pierce Brosnan Bond into the video game universe but also Judi Dench’s M; pretty much every cast member of note reprises their role in this game including one legacy Bond villain which I’ll get into later.
I said in my review of Nightfire that it was the first game to successfully replicate the same tone and feel as the films, well, Everything Or Nothing goes a step further: the returning cast, the strong set-pieces and the third person perspective give the impression that you are actually playing a Bond film, not a product emulating one… just at a max resolution of about 480i. I’m going to be upfront and say that I preferred Nightfire to this game and there are many elements to EoN that irritated me but the presentation and the veneer of authenticity kept me playing, not to mention the stunning presentation for a game of its age.
This prologue: Ground Zero, pleasantly surprised me. I came in to Everything Or Nothing expecting it to share almost zero similarities with the previous FPS greats of the Bond video game franchise but Redwood Shores successfully managed to graft GoldenEye’s free cursor aiming system onto a third person shooter targeting mechanic in a way that feels really good to use; there are some deep flaws in this game’s shooting mind you but none involve the aiming.
After seemingly destroying half of Tajikistan and recovering the stolen nuclear device, Bond departs the arms deal and we get this game’s title song: Everything Or Nothing by Mya.
Everything Or Nothing by Mya is as violently 2004 as a song could be… and I sort of love it. What a bop. Once again, I’m showing the limits of my music knowledge by not knowing about Mya or her work but I think Everything Or Nothing fits the late-Brosnan era very well, in fact, I think it’s better than Madonna’s Die Another Day… but that’s widely considered one of the bottom 3 Bond songs, so low-hanging fruit.
Yet again, Everything Or Nothing's Soviet-themed intro looks and feels like a real Bond film and say what you want about the song vs Nearly Civilized by Esthero but the opening for this game doesn’t spoil anywhere near the amount of plot that Nightfire’s did. This is one area where EoN surpasses its predecessors.
What Everything Or Nothing lacks in quality it makes up for in ingenuity. Willem Dafoe plays the villain here and EA even got the likeness of Richard Kiel so that Jaws could appear as a recurring boss fight; whereas Nightfire played it safe and resembles a best of album of 007 film and video game motifs, EoN’s gameplay reinvents the wheel, its plot (although absolutely bonkers) doesn’t really resemble any of the films up to that point and its set-pieces are entirely its own, that has to be respected.
Redwood Shores could have made Everything Or Nothing a Nightfire 2 but instead they went bigger: bigger set-pieces, bigger names, a bigger budget and a game that’s about twice as long as its predecessor.
Platinum Plated
007 Everything Or Nothing possesses hands down the most impressive graphics I’ve ever seen coming out of a GameCube and sits up there with Escape From Butcher Bay and Splinter Cell on the Xbox as the most impressive console graphics I’ve seen of this era. Compare this game with early 360 titles like Call Of Duty 3 and Perfect Dark Zero (maybe don’t play that one, just look at it) and I don’t think EoN look out of place at all.
007 Nightfire, which primarily takes place in Japan, has gone down in my own memory as a Japan-themed Bond game; Everything Or Nothing takes Bond all over, from Central Asia and Egypt to Peru, the USA and Russia but most of the game takes place in Peru, as such I’ve come to think of it as a South America-themed game. Of all these locations I found the missions set in the USA’s New Orleans to be the most graphically striking and visually compelling, unfortunately, I can’t seem to find an imagine online of these levels at a decent resolution and size but the way the city’s night time lights reflect off Bond’s car and and the damp tarmac is simply stunning.
Another couple of highlights were the driving and helicopter sections in Egypt where Bond must chase an armoured train and then a helicopter in order to destroy a prototype for deadly nanobots… Everything Or Nothing veers a bit more into science fiction than other Bond games, to mixed results. Ancient ruins topple around you as you dodge and weave out of the way of falling debris, wide valleys and desert vistas stretch before you without a hint of draw distance fog all while the humble GameCube maintains a steady 30FPS; if this were attempted on any hardware prior, you just know it would have been torturous to play.
Everything Or Nothing’s missions are more linear and less atmospheric than in Nightfire but on a purely visual level, they look better which in turn helps with immersion.
Unfortunately, compared to Nightfire’s fantastic soundtrack, just one piece of music stood out to me in EoN: the catchy, guitar-infused remix of the James Bond theme song that plays between missions as you sit lamenting your lack of a Gold medal.
It’s not all bad though because Everything Or Nothing’s gun sounds are a bit more punchy: the MP5K emits a pleasing, steady drum sound at full-auto and the heavier AK-74 roars with the heft and power you’d expect of a rifle like that; the Desert Eagle was a joy to use as well, as an often single shot killer its powerful blasts signal the end of any engagement where you choose to wield it.
I’m saddened and surprised to say that Pierce Brosnan’s performance adds very little to Everything Or Nothing. Look, Pierce is my favourite actor to ever pick up the Walther PPK and licence to kill, closely followed by the great Sean Connery but I don’t know whether it was poor direction, an unfamiliarity with the medium or plain resentment knowing that this would be his final appearance as Bond but his voice performance in this game is incredibly wooden; Bond has barely any lines in EoN as I imagine Brosnan was expensive to get onboard. I honestly would have preferred Maxwell Caulfield: Bond’s voice in Nightfire returning to voice the super spy if it meant more one-liners, charisma and energetic delivery. Willem Dafoe doesn’t get a lot to work with either though it is glorious to hear him hamming it up as a cheesy Russian villain and John Cleese is as brilliant as ever; Judi Dench is relegated to radio exposition and button prompts which is a real shame given her stature in the pantheon of British actors.
Losing Traction
Everything Or Nothing is a third-person shooter with a cover mechanic and a surprisingly enjoyable hand to hand fighting system; Bond can parry, throw enemies and strikes land with a pleasing amount of force. Vehicle missions make a return but I have to say, Everything Or Nothing botches 2/3 of its primary gameplay styles.
Let’s start with Everything Or Nothing’s shooting. The aiming system I’ve already praised and weapons feel good to use, however, it is utterly ruined by a lock-on system that genuinely feels worse than Ocarina Of Time on the Nintendo 64. Throughout my playthrough of EoN (where the tutorial is mandatory) I could not work out a way to switch targets quickly and effectively, often times getting riddled with ammunition and killed before I could properly respond because there is no Switch Target/Cycle to Next Enemy button, you break lock and re-establish it while hoping for the best. Making this issue even more grating is EoN’s archaic, pre-Gears Of War cover system which is fine for pressing Bond’s back flat against walls but useless in every other scenario; more than once I met my end crouching behind a waist high barrier until a round clapped me in the forehead. Everything Or Nothing is already a hard game: I would argue too hard in those initial levels, I died more than twice on the first proper mission and had to concentrate to finish certain engagements, so having to fight the lock-on system along with a poor cover mechanic soured my opinion of the game by the halfway point. I hope you like PS2-era checkpoints.
Somehow, the vehicle missions in Everything Or Nothing are a touch below what came before as well. From what I can gather, this game’s vehicle handling was roughly modelled on Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, I can imagine in that game where the player can shift gears up and down and can affect control over the car more precisely it works but in a third person shooter with streamlined driving controls? Not so much. Compared to Nightfire, vehicles are just a pain to drive in EoN which is tragic because from a purely objectives and gameplay perspective, these are better levels.
Rather than a traditional versus multiplayer mode, Everything Or Nothing comes with a set of exclusive CO-OP missions where you play as a pair of operatives in what look like Gym Shark leggings.
I only have 1 GameCube controller and nobody to play this mode with so unfortunately, I can’t review it, however… I’ve heard from multiple sources and other reviews that it is unreasonably difficult and a months-long project for those who attempted it as kids back in the day. It’s a shame that no friendly CPU was put together so you could play this mode alone but friendly forces don’t appear in Everything Or Nothing full-stop, so I have to imagine it wasn’t the most expedient use of resources.
Nightfire’s addictive medal system makes a return in this game but being honest, between the high difficulty, clunky gameplay and the game dragging on a bit longer than it probably should have, my motivation to try for Platinum medals was very low.
Wish I Could Make You Vanish
007 Everything Or Nothing was a disappointing experience for me, from start to finish I wanted so much to love this one like I did Nightfire but it consistently comes up short where it counts.
The plot: a bizarre chain of events that centres around steel-eating, platinum nanobots and a scheme to seize control of the Russian Federation is ridiculous on a level even Roger Moore’s James Bond films don’t often hit; Agent Under Fire was outlandish too but that game’s entire tone was tongue in cheek whereas EoN takes itself seriously. The gameplay both on-foot and in vehicles is consistently compromised and while it has its moments and isn’t an awful game, Everything Or Nothing isn’t a title I see myself rushing back to replay any time soon.
TL;DR: I didn’t get on very well with Everything Or Nothing. It has a veneer of authenticity and stunning presentation awarded by its budget but clunky gameplay, wooden performances and a ludicrous plot let it down. I recommend this game for Bond fans only, there are better options for a third person action fix.
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Them getting Brosnan back for one more role he didn't want to do and then not being able to afford getting enough lines from him anyway reminds me of Kiefer Sutherland's Snake in MGS5. There was a lot going on and it's not like he's terrible but the end result is. An entire game of the protagonist basically giving everyone the silent treatment, and in the one series that really doesn't work for.
I remember also finding Everything or Nothing WAY harder than previous Bond games which dragged my enjoyment down of it.